Top climbing months

Most climbed route

Highlights

Mount Stuart is the highest mountain in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Cascade Range of Washington.

2nd highest non-volcanic peak in Washington, after Bonanza Peak.

Like many Cascade peaks, Mount Stuart is more notable for its local relief than for its absolute elevation. The south face rises 5,000 feet in just 2 horizontal miles. The northeast and northwest sides of the mountain exhibit similar steep relief.

Due to its location away from higher peaks, Mount Stuart has 5,354 ft prominence, making it the 6th most prominent peak in Washington.

The rock of Mount Stuart is unusually rugged and unstable, due to the extensive jointing of the granite.

The standard route is the Class 3 Southeast Route up the Cascadian Couloir. It ascends the gully to a false summit just southeast of the main summit and finishes along a short ridge. The route involves scrambling, and often, steep snow.

More technical climbs can be found on the complex north face of the mountain, including the classic North Ridge (5.7).

Highlights

Latest summits

"Climbed the CC solo as a dayhike. Absolutely gorgeous area with stunning views of Rainier and the Enchantments. I was able to avoid alot of the loosness staying on steeper granite. Didn't touch any snow and a fun scramble from the false summit. Stoked to have Stuart as my 100th peak." — MatthewWinterberg • Aug 14, 2017

"Had an awesome time climbing Mount Stuart via the Cascadian Couloir with my buddy Paul. We hiked in and camped at Ingalls Creek last night. We started climbing at 3am with the headlamps out and got to watch a killer sunrise as we were leaving the top of the couloir. We were the first party at the summit and had it to ourselves the entire time we spent up there. Second tallest non volcanic peak in Washington. And the delicious bonus was that I finally got to eat a Mount Stuart Burger from Mountain High Hamburgers after climbing Mount Stuart.
" — Al-Rashid • Sep 10, 2016

"After taking so many pictures of Mount Stuart during our summer hikes in the area, we decided to try and fit in an attempt before the the snows begins, and while there was a potentially decent two-day stretch of weather. There are a number of good resources that describe the "standard route," up and over Long's Pass and up the Cascadian Couloir, in particular Summit Post.org. One item to note, as it was our first time up and over Long's Pass, we missed the cairn that marks the route down, which is about 20 feet to the left of where the trail reaches the top of the pass. There are trails that go over to the right, and we ended taking the long route down Long's Pass before picking up the trail again before the Ingalls Creek Crossing.
We would recommend doing one's homework before the climb (studying the route, looking at photos of the mountain to trace your path, reading trail reports, etc.). The route up to the summit is marked well the entire way with cairns - almost too well. More than once, there were multiple piles of rocks marking some sort of route. Eventually most end up in the same place, but it is very easy to get off route on the mountain above the couloir, and then on ..." — BryHong8 • Sep 19, 2015

"As soon as we got closer to Stuart, the rain began to taper off, to our pleasure. As we pulled in the Stuart parking lot, we could see a group of 30 teenage girls assembled at the far end, all with backpacking gear. I was shocked. Were they ALL doing Stuart? Not being from the area, we didn’t know there was anything else around. Stuart is known for having lots of loose rock, which would be a hazard with that many people on the route. Turns out it was just a religious retreat and they were going to a nearby lake. Phew.
The approach supposedly gained about 2000 feet, then lost over 1200 (such a pain!) and ended at Ingalls Creek where there were campsites. It was a steady, easy trail with lots of switchbacks, so we made it to the top of Longs Pass after only an hour. We then descended a steep, rocky slope and eventually made it to the creek another hour later. We filtered some water there, but our Steri Pen was acting up and not working properly, so we only had about 2 liters each. We filled up another bottle and hoped it would work later.
We were not the most prepared on this trip. We had our new “pocket rocket” stove and were looking forward to making a semi-real dinner, but ..." — justinraphaelson • Jul 28, 2015

"A true, definitional Grepic. This huge day had Grim obstacles but also Epic rewards.
We left Seattle at midnight (wha?) and found ourselves hiking up to Long’s Pass before 3am. Up on the pass the wind gusts were fierce as we witnessed early dawn at 4:15.
Soon we were ascending the climber’s path and the long loose dirt and rock gully up into the Cascadian Couloir. The couloir was snow-free the entire way up and tedious going on loose talus, scree, and dirt; a snow climb would have made it so much easier.
We hit snow shortly after gaining the ridge slopes above the Crapcadian. All was good until the snow steepened below the false summit. Crampons and axe couldn’t get enough purchase before hitting an ice layer underneath. Halfway up this slope we were forced to start cutting steps with the axe; tough, slow work in the blazing sun. After a big effort we finally reached the cutover to the true summit. We scrambled up to the final snow climb still unsure if we’d go for it; if an ice sheet lay underneath it was doubtful we’d be able to self arrest.
Carefully started the final climb and found the snow deep and good to go. A few minutes later we stood on the summit, 9 hrs afte..." — scott • Jun 10, 2015

"After an awesome peak bagging backpack trip to Gem Lake last weekend, Colin and I were left with a lingering summit fever. We have both been looking at Mount Stuart for years and conditions could not have been better for a summit bid. We hoped to camp in the Ingalls Creek valley or somewhere along the climb but when we arrived at the trailhead at 1030 pm we chose instead to sleep in the truck and make an alpine start.
We were on the trail at 2:45 am and off to Long's Pass by 4. Stuart was well enough lit by moonlight to make out the wide Cascade Couloir from the pass. The morning light appeared before we reached Ingalls Creek. We both mistakenly believed the trail followed the South side of the creek and we made it about a half mile East before we decided to leave our overgrown path and push through brush and over the creek to the real trail. The trail that leads to the beginning of the Cascade Couloir Route begins at the West edge of a clearing just after a small creek crossing with the remains of an old footbridge.
Several tents were set up in the camp just south of the clearing below the col. We returned to the creek after climbing 200' of the trail and refilled our water,..." — Jeb • Jul 27, 2013

A note on Prominence

A peak’s prominence, also known as topographic prominence or relative height, is a measure of how distinct a peak is from other peaks. It’s defined as the vertical distance between a peak and the lowest contour line surrounding that peak and no higher peak. Prominence is a popular metric for peaks for two reasons: 1) it’s objective and relatively easy to calculate, and 2) higher prominence peaks are more likely to be interesting with higher independence vs. peaks with lower prominence.

Note that prominence is not the same thing as a peak’s vertical drop, which is usually extremely difficult to calculate because a peak’s base elevation can be highly subjective. Instead, peakery shows vertical gain for specific routes up peaks.

Prominence ranks are calculated only for peaks with known prominence. Note that since many peaks in peakery still have unknown prominence, the ranks are subject to change as new prominence info is added.

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